Concert – Dimitri Grechi Espinoza

The Spiritual Meaning of Sound

For this occasion, using the beautiful reverberation of the Church of S. Caterina, pieces from the repertoire of some of the traditional musical cultures it has directly experienced, such as the Tuareg, Gnawa and Malian cultures, will be performed. Also, pieces inspired by the Folklore of other musical traditions.

With “The Spiritual Meaning of Sound“, it addresses those who, through listening, are able to experience an inner resonance and thanks to this inner resonance, they can become aware of the quality (sound) that constitutes our deepest essence.

OREB, the title of Dimitri Grechi Espinoza’s latest project, is another name for Mount Sinai, where Moses met God “face to face” in a dialogue that became incandescent matter for all humanity in the Ten Commandments. But Oreb is also the mountain where the prophet Elijah, tired and disgusted by too much killing, encounters the silent voice of God. The Lord was not in the wind, not in the earthquake, not in the fire; but in a “voice of suspended silence”, barely perceptible to the ear. It is this quality of silence that expresses Dimitri Grechi Espinoza’s Sax solo: a silent space that needs to be created within oneself before speaking with the Other, before speaking with others.

Gabriella Caramore – host of “Uomini e Profeti” Rai Radio3

DIMITRI GRECHI ESPINOZA was born in Moscow in 1965, attended Jazz Mobile in New York, and completed advanced professional courses at Siena jazz with P. Tonolo. In 2000 he founded the musical research group Dinamitri Jazz Folklore which in 2014 obtained the 2nd place in the Musica Jazz magazine ranking as the best Italian group. In August 2001 he was invited to play at the Pan-African festival in Brazzaville (Congo). From March 2002 to 2003 he collaborated with Goma Parfait Ludovic, director of the Congolese company Yela wa, in the research on the tradition of African healing music with seminars and performances. Since 2004 he has mainly focused his activity in two directions: the application of research results on traditional cultures to the music of the Dinamitri Jazz Folklore group, and the solo concert “Oreb/The Spiritual Meaning of Sound”, in addition to educational activities. In 2011 he participated in the “Fesival Au Desert” in Mali, and from 2012 to 2014 he directed the project “Azalai-Musical Caravan” with which he performed at some of the biggest European festivals.

Oreb has been performed in some of the most prestigious Italian venues, including:

• Pantheon (Rome), Baptistery S.Giovanni (Pisa), St. Giles Cathedral (Edinburgh), Pinacoteca di Brera (Milan), Chiesa della Grande Madre (Torino), Basilica S.Gaudenzio (Novara)
• Cappella Pazzi (Florence), Planetary (Milan), Battistero S.Giovanni (Volterra), Uffizi Gallery (Florence), Basilica S.Miniato (Florence), Basilica S.Vitale (Ravenna)
• Cisterna Mirabilis (Naples), Duomo Pozzuoli (Naples), Abbazia di Rosazzo (Udine), Palazzo Liviano (Padua), Basilica S. Maria delle Grazie (Milan).